Left/Right Hemisphere Damage

neuroscience of com

What are the two main LH language areas?

Broca’s area (production) & Wernicke’s area (comprehension)

What do the angular & supramarginal gyri help with?

Reading, writing, meaning processing

Posterior LH damage affects what?

Language comprehension

Anterior LH damage affects what?

Expressive language / production

What does the dorsal language pathway do?

Auditory–motor integration (hearing speech → planning speech)

What does the ventral language pathway do?

Sound-to-meaning mapping (understanding word meaning)

What type of aphasia is linked to anterior damage?

Broca’s aphasia (non-fluent)

What type of aphasia is linked to posterior damage?

Wernicke’s aphasia (fluent)

What is the primary issue in Broca’s aphasia?

Expressive language (non-fluent speech)

What is the primary issue in Wernicke’s aphasia?

Comprehension (fluent but lacks meaning)

Global aphasia – fluent? comprehension? repetition?

No, no, no

Broca’s aphasia – fluent? comprehension? repetition?

No fluent, good comprehension, poor repetition

Wernicke’s aphasia – fluent? comprehension? repetition?

Fluent, poor comprehension, poor repetition

Conduction aphasia – main issue?

Poor repetition

Anomic aphasia – main issue?

Word-finding difficulties

What causes Apraxia of Speech?

Damage to the anterior, inferior frontal lobe (near Broca’s)

What is the core problem in Apraxia of Speech?

Motor planning/programming for speech

What hemisphere handles pragmatics?

Right hemisphere

What are the 3 components of pragmatics?

Linguistic, paralinguistic, extralinguistic

What is apragmatism?

Difficulty producing or understanding context-dependent communication

RH damage – linguistic pragmatic problems?

Verbose, tangential, disorganized speech

RH damage – paralinguistic problems?

Flat voice; trouble interpreting tone

RH damage – extralinguistic problems?

Reduced facial expressions/gestures; misreading others’ body language